Kids love trick-or-treating for a number of reasons; you're allowed to be out at night, you wear a wacky outfit (often of your own choosing), and you never know what you will collect.

Yes, there is typically candy. A lot of candy. But their bags also fill up with microwave popcorn packets, spider rings, stickers, and one year, a plant.

No lie, last year, or was it two years ago, I can’t remember, but one year, a neighbor gave out clippings from a spider plant.

I loved this idea and laughed, smiling at the neighbor with grateful appreciation as my daughter ran to the next house. One, I’m guessing, she was anxious to collect chocolate from.

Fast forward (one year or maybe two) to now. I’m on the porch admiring a plant. Suddenly, it occurs to me that this is the plant. Larger, leafy, and rooted, yes, but it is still the Halloween treat.

I so appreciated this unusual Halloween handout and wanted to thank them again, for the fun memory and a thriving porch plant. But, I’m not in the habit of ringing the doorbells of neighbors I don’t talk to regularly. I’m not up for an awkward conversation about passing time.

So, I drew the plant. Colored it with watercolor pencils. Then, I taped the drawing with a short note, thanking them for the Halloween treat, to their mailbox.

Maybe they’ve forgotten that Halloween, or maybe they have a flurry of spider plant thank you notes flooding their mailbox. Either way, it was fun for me to create and then give that creation away anonymously.

Whether it’s a plant that had to be trimmed back or a watercolor ripped from a drawing pad, it is satisfying to give away something that might bring a small smile, Halloween or not.